Black Sheep
by TheChronoDragon
Summary: Wizards, Werewolves, and an insidious plot to take over the world, or at least the greater Chicago area? Just another day in the life of Harry Dresden, Wizard P.I.
1. Chapter 1

'Wizards, Werewolves, and an insidious plot to take over the world, or at least the greater Chicago area? Just another day in the life of Harry Dresden, Wizard P.I.'

The Dresden Files and all associated properties are owned by Jim Butcher. This is a non-profit fanfic. Please support the official release.

This story takes place between Summer Knight and Death Masks.

Beta-ed by: ZeroZalazor

My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, Wizard of The White Council, and Private Investigator of Chicago.

And I don't get house calls.

Which made the knocking on my door weird, considering most people who needed to talk me did so on the phone, as opposed to showing up at my apartment. Seeing as I was in the phone book under 'Wizard', a decent number of those calls were either pranks, crazies, or people recommending I seek psychiatric help.

The knocking was also uneven, and while not quick, definitely coming from someone under distress. Potentially, of course, to break into my home and eat me like a crispy wizard sandwich, but demons and their ilk generally don't knock on your door when they come for your blood.

Trust me on that one.

And because that meant it was potentially a person in distress, or at the least looking for directions (if only), I hurried to open my front door.

In fact, I hurried so quickly that I completely forgot I was wearing my bathrobe.

It is a horrible, rude, and offensive stereotype that all wizards wear robes. Never mind that that White Council does, in fact, require robes at pretty much all formal meetings.

But anyway, back to the wizard running to his front door in a silly bathrobe.

As I neared my front door, there was a thump against it, and a sound suspiciously like something sliding down the outside.

Now I was worried.

Running up to the solidly reinforced door, with extra steel to keep out unwanted demons and fey, particularly the godmother variant of the last one, and wrenched open the door...

... To reveal a redheaded naked woman who looked to have passed out, bleeding, and slumped against where my door had been moments previous.

While normally supernatural entities don't bother playing the wounded gazelle card, there are some who'd use the sympathy to get a free pass into someone's threshold. Luckily I did recognize the woman as I did my best to carry her inside, flicking the steel door as well as I could with one foot as I walked past.

She was Andi, a werewolf friend of Billy, and part of the group I'd met during the loup-garou fiasco. They had very little formal training, even though as werewolves they had to have at least a minor talent.

That, however, did not mean they were helpless against a decent amount of things that went bump in the night.

Transforming into a wolf, after all, meant you were a wolf. They were considerably faster than humans, had better senses, and could hit considerably harder than anything human could naturally, baring magic or divine intervention. In other words, they certainly could never be classified as pushovers.

Which worried me, seeing as Andi was naked, indicating she had at some point before collapsing transformed into a werewolf...

... Meaning all this damage had likely been done to her as a werewolf. Which, as earlier mentioned, meant something superhuman had once again swept into the Windy City.

But, of more presently important matters, I was in the process of sitting a friend, if slightly extended, who was in the process of bleeding out on my already war torn couch.

Which was very bad, not just for the couch, but also for Andi, because like pretty much every mortal that hadn't made a deal with the Fair Folk, werewolves had no access to any healing abilities, and while she wasn't going to be dieing right this instant, she was in rather dire straits.

So, once making sure she was secure, I beat a hasty retreat to the first-aid kit that seemed to get a distressing amount use in recent years, and got bandages and antiseptics.

I also had far more experience applying the medical supplies than was normal, which was helpful here.

I was also doing my level best to not notice her current state of undress, and was partially succeeding. Mostly.

After making sure that everything was alright with Andi, and she wasn't going to lose a limb to infection while I was gone, I pulled up the trapdoor that I hadn't had time to hide under my rug, and descended into my lab.

Considering I had spent the greater part of the year before last in my lab, it had changed very little.

It was still in my basement, obviously, still had the summoning circle, bookshelves with an assortment of arcane tomes, untouched self-help books, and dime-store romance novels. All that, in addition to the shelves upon shelves of crap I had collected over the years, from both yard sales and more... questionable methods, mostly for what I needed it for now.

Potion making.

Despite what other wizards named Harry will tell you, potions aren't hard to understand, but they are hard to make.

While potions do have a physical component to them, the vast majority of a potion is the spiritual aspects of the brew, and those vary from person to person. While I generally know what I'm doing for the potions I regularly make, there is still a degree of error involved, and accidentally killing the person I was trying to help with the potion would be a bummer.

Which is why I walked over to the human skull on my bookshelves, near the highest concentration of smut, and spoke the skulls name.

"... Bob."

Orange lights opened in the skulls sockets.

Now technically speaking Bob isn't the name of the skull, but it is the name of the spirit of Air and Intellect kept in the skull.

Bob is a massive repository of magical knowledge, who I had obtained from my late master Justin DuMorne.

My obtain, of course, I meant took-it-from-the-ashes-of-the-home-we'd-lived-in-before-he-tried-to-mind-control-me-and-did-mind-control-my-girlfriend, but that's neither here nor there. The main thing here was that Bob was a fantastic resource...

Bob's skull broke into a lecherous grin.

"Why hello Harry! You seem to be... awake this afternoon!"

... As well as a massive pervert.

I tried to adjust my bathrobe as best I could to cover up the... problem seeing a beautiful woman in the nude had... Um... Caused, which was thankfully abating, in part due to the fact the woman had sustained substantial damage, and I was worried, and the fact it was still freezing in the basement.

Being a wizard has its prices, and Heating and A/C were two of them.

Selling your soul to the devil, thankfully, was not.

... Most of the time.

But anyway, I had a friend to save.

"Hope you're firing on all cylinders today Bob, 'cause we've got a doozy."

Bob snorted, a miracle considering he had no flesh or cartilage to snort with.

"Harry, I could be running like a single horse with three amputated limbs, and be dancing circles around you."

... Which was true enough. That was hardly the point though.

"I'd better get your A game today though, because I'm trying for a healing potion."

Bob immediately sobered. Healing magic was pretty difficult stuff, and a whole lot could go wrong with it, even if you were careful.

"That's outside of your usual bunch Harry. Who's it for?"

Of course it was. With how ludicrously complex the human body was, making a potion to heal just anyone was near about impossible. You had to make them on a person by person basis, and even then, as I had mentioned before, that had a landfill of potential problems. Which meant I had to give Bob the lowdown.

After my hurried retelling of events, Bob whistled, and it wasn't his normal wolf-whistle. Though that would have been a mood lightener.

For once he was serious, and I appreciated it.

"I was thinking something that sped up the bodies natural healing. Think we can handle that?"

Bob made a noncommittal hum.

"Probably. From the sound of it, no broken bones, so improper resetting shouldn't be a problem. Either way, an expedited healing potion is the safest option, but she's going to be starving afterwards."

I shrugged.

"That's something I can handle. So what will I need?"

Once Bob listed off his ingredients, I moved towards the shelving to collect whatever I needed, only for Bob's voice to stop me.

"You should also make something to wake her up, after you administer the first potion. She's going to need to eat pretty soon after, and getting information on whatever did it is going to be key."

Bob seemed oddly serious today, but I was certainly glad, even as he listed off ingredients for what amounted to magical smelling salts. Hell's Bell's, that was even in the recipe!

Once I had everything collected, I got to work.

Seeing as the healing potion was basically a super metabolism potion, it had to have a high energy liquid base, so the flask contained apple juice. The magic smelling salts had a simple base of salt water.

I started with the hearing aspect, which was the sound of a healthy heartbeat for the healing potion and a loud scream for the wake-up potion.

After 'collecting' the heartbeat and the scream, I added them to their respective potions.

The smell of antiseptics, the last I had left, and the smelling salts respectively.

Taste was of coffee, and a very sour Lemonhead candy.

Touch was covered by an old scab, which I had on my shelves, unfortunately, and the roughest sandpaper I could find.

And to round off the senses a smile and a flashing light for sight.

Next was spirit, covered by a hair of dog, seeing as Billy had never gotten around to supplying any wolf hair, and a single, forceful statement of 'wake up!'.

And finally body. This was going to be a little more unpleasant.

I pulled out my letter opener, and gave my right pinky enough of a hole to drip blood into the concoction. Compared to that, the shot of energy drink into the 'wake-up-and-smell-the-roses' potion was downright pleasant. Even if the container seemed to be glowing from the color.

With Bob's guidance, mixing the potions became an easy, if tedious process, and before long I had two sports bottles full of potion, well marked this time.

I could feel Bob's eyes follow me as I left the lab.

I made sure to heat up the oven, and stars and stones it was times like this I missed electricity, and grabbed the food I knew would be stocked in the ice box. After unwrapping them and putting them in the oven to cook, I got down to business.

During my bandaging I had run out, and once again, didn't that say something, so I had left some of the minor wounds on her upper arms with just antiseptic.

After making sure I had the right bottle, I opened Andi's mouth, and as carefully as I could tilted her head up so she didn't drown. It was probably good she wasn't awake, because while the potion making process makes the ingredients edible, many potions tasted horrible. And this was probably one of them.

It took a little over a minute to empty the bottle into her mouth, and some effects were already taking place. The healing potion was mainly a catalyst, and as such was used to speed up a reaction, the body's healing process in this case. While the potion did contain energy as well, a large chunk of the required power had to come from the human body, thus the need for food pretty much immediately afterwards.

That also made healing potions on the battlefield impractical, seeing as that took up much of the energy needed for spell casting, as well as the drop in concentration due to the ravenous hunger that was spawned.

She was healing at a visible rate, far faster than anything purely natural could achieve, but not Wolverine (or loup-garou) levels. It would also heal only to the point of having pink, new flesh, so it still wasn't perfect.

Luckily, most of her major wounds weren't in highly visible places, so long as she wore long sleeves and didn't bear her midriff for a couple weeks, she'd be fine.

... Although it was a very nice midriff...

No! Bad Dresden! She's a friend, and just recently had the crap beaten out of her! Bad thoughts!

According to the clock, it had been around forty minutes, and the healing was drawing to a close. I went back into the kitchen, pulled the food out of the oven before I had to explain to my kindly old landlady why there was a naked woman on my couch when the fire squad arrived.

Once I had impressed on Mister, my cat, who had not entered the living room since Andi had arrived, (and how unusual was my life when I could put 'passed out on my door' into 'arrived' in my head?) that he was not to eat the food, I returned to the couch.

It was time to face the music.

After picking up the remaining sports bottle, I knelt next to my werewolf friend, opening her mouth and tilted back her head, just like last time, and poured.

It looked suspiciously like Mountain Dew as it poured down her throat, a drink I'd never had, but Michael's daughter Molly had been sneaking one the last time time I had swung by the Carpenter residence.

The glow was memorable.

Once I was positive she wasn't about to start choking, I took several healthy steps back.

The potion was going to be a heavy shock to her system, and she was going to be disoriented at first. The last thing I needed was for her to see the massive figure next to her and come at me fangs first. Best to let her acclimate.

She bolted upright and swung her feet onto the floor in an instant, drawing herself up to her full height with a snarl, and I tensed for oncoming combat...

... Only for Andi to trip and fall with a very feminine yelp.

I blinked.

That... hadn't been what I'd expected.

It was likely that the super-energy potion had increased her awareness, like caffeine has the tendency to.

The sensation of her body being completely drained probably hadn't had its chance to manifest, and as such she'd gotten up on legs that felt perfectly fine, only for them to collapse under her.

As she struggled to get up off the floor, I spoke in my most non-threatening tone.

"Andi, it's me, Harry!"

Her eyes went up to mine and I saw recognition in the split second before I averted my eyes to avoid a Soulgaze.

She tried speaking.

"H-"

She coughed loudly. I did my best to be looking anywhere other than her.

Andi cleared her throat, and tried speaking again.

"... Harry?"

I tried my best to add some humor to the situation.

"The one and only. You almost had me worried there."

I expected for that to not go well, but she gave a very unladylike snort.

Huh. Maybe massive bodily trauma made my jokes funnier.

And knowing my life, by the end of the week I'd be able to test that theory.

By now, Andi looked like she wasn't out of it anymore, and was taking in the surroundings.

... That was right, wasn't it? The Alpha's had never been in my apartment. Whenever we played Arcanos, I always went to their place, and other than that I wasn't somebody who had people drop by often.

"Why don't we grab you something to eat, and then you can explain what happened."

Andi's stomach, as though listening, chose that moment to growl. She looked down, blushing slightly, before noticing her wounds weren't wounds anymore.

I cut her off before she could say anything.

"I'll get to that over the food."

She managed to get to her feet, slower this time, though still a little unsteady, before saying.

"You'd be...tt...er?"

Her nose sniffed the air.

"... Is that...?"

My face broke into a grin.

"Yep! The best oven-ready pizza's money can buy!"

... Or your fairy housekeepers can stock your fridge with, but semantics.

She moved past me into the kitchen, clearly ravenous, before she stopped, and turned to me.

"... Harry?"

I raised an eyebrow, a move I had perfected in my teenage years, before magic had rendered me incapable of watching decent Bond films.

"Yes?"

I stretched the word for all it was worth, hoping for a laugh.

She had a slight tilt of one side of her lips, but little else.

"... Would you mind grabbing me some clothes?"


	2. Chapter 2

'Wizards, Werewolves, and an insidious plot to take over the world, or at least the greater Chicago area? Just another day in the life of Harry Dresden, Wizard P.I.'

The Dresden Files and all associated properties are owned by Jim Butcher. This is a non-profit fanfic. Please support the official release.

This story takes place between Summer Knight and Death Masks.

Beta-ed by: ZeroZalazor

My shirt was damn near a sundress on her.

While Andi was not small for a woman, nowhere near Murph's five foot nothing, I was more than a touch over six and a half feet tall.

Luckily, my ruminations on height allowed me to mostly ignore the fact that I, being a man, hadn't had any women's underwear for her.

The... bottom portion had been easily solved by a pair of boxers from an unopened package, coincidently from the Wal-Mart Murphy and I had trashed earlier in the year, but I didn't have any real substitutes for a bra.

Under another circumstance I would have recommended she use medical tape, at least for the time being, but seeing as my medical kit was fully depleted of it, that wasn't an option.

So here I was, sitting in the kitchen, across the table from a very attractive woman whose... tracts of land were moving quite vigorously as she scarfed down the pizza.

Bob hadn't been kidding about the potion using a lot of energy, seeing as she had already devoured two pizza's and was making headway on her third.

She had also chugged three Coke's, and was nursing her fourth.

While normally I would have broken out some of Mac's microbrew, getting tipsy would have to wait until after I found out what had happened.

The fact that the Alpha's hadn't rang yet indicted that either this had been an attack on just her...

... Or that something very bad had hit my fluffy friends.

And the first option was definitely a suckers bet.

Even if it would have been a refreshing change of pace.

Andi, thankfully, seemed to have stopped at three and half pizza's, and five Coke's. Which was good, seeing as I only had four pizza's in my icebox.

Of course, being Harry Dresden, smartass extraordinaire, I had to make a snarky comment.

"There's still half a pizza if you're still hungry."

Andi looked down at the table and jumped, as though noticing it for the first time how much food she had stuffed into her, and blushed.

"Well, I was... very hungry."

My head went up and down in agreement.

"That was to be expected, in all honesty. It looks like you've had a rough day."

My red-headed friend across the table perked her head up, realizing something.

"Oh yeah! I was in way worse shape when I got here!"

She tilted her head to the side, like an inquisitive dog.

"... How'd you manage that?"

The side of my mouth curved up, because, surprisingly, there hadn't been even a hint of accusation. Just curiosity.

"Quick healing potion. Pretty precise stuff, so it's not really the sort of thing you can prepare in advance, unfortunately, unless you know who's getting hurt, and if there's any broken bones you're way more likely to make things worse than better."

The red-headed Alpha nodded to indicate her understanding. Unfortunately, that meant the ball was in my court for Question Corner.

"Andi... What did that to you?"

She frowned, realizing it was time to get down to business.

"... I'm not entirely certain on the details. Some of us were studying for Midterm exams, which are in a couple months, but Georgia's already on us, when the door rang. Kirby... He..."

Andi choked, and I made sympathetic motions, after all, the word in the gang was that Andi was sweet on Kirby. Unfortunately, as much as this hurt Andi, I had to know the full story.

"... And then, Andi?"

She made another choking sound, but nodded, took a deep breath, and continued.

"Kirby went to answer the door. He seemed to recognize the person, and invited them in."

I winced.

That was letting someone, or something, through the threshold, and that meant that whatever had attacked them was definitely magic in nature, and potentially from the NeverNever, the spirit realm.

Luckily, Andi didn't notice, and continued.

"I couldn't hear who it was, but after a bit of time, Kirby walked by into the kitchen, saying he was going to grab some snacks for our guest."

She frowned harder.

"To be honest, I thought it was you, Lt. Murphy, or Mr. Carpenter. You've been dropping by more recently..."

Which I had, if for no other reason to let them know I wasn't going back to my hermit lifestyle.

"... Ms. Murphy sometimes drops by before heading to you if she's got anything weird before dropping by your place..."

I hadn't known that... And Ms. Murphy? She'd better be glad Murph didn't hear that.

"... And Mr. Carpenter promised to take a look at some cracking drywall in the pantry, and promised to give us a good deal if it needed work."

That definitely sounded like Michael.

After listing off her reasons, she took a stabilizing breath, and continued.

"Less than fifteen seconds after Kirby left the room, the person in the foyer screamed."

Andi frowned in thought, and concentration, obviously trying to give me as good an idea of what had happened as she could.

"I'm reasonably sure it was a woman that screamed. After that, there were snarls and growls and then two... they weren't proper wolves, and I'd know, but some sort of dog at least, burst through the doorway. They were... massive though. And all of it was muscle. They also had all black fur, if that helps."

I was frowning now. That did sound familiar. It... Well...

... Sounded like hellhounds.

... Which were creatures of the NeverNever, and, in fact, they to my knowledge belonged to a single fey. But it was best to not jump to any conclusions.

But anyway, I nodded at Andi.

"I've got an idea, but I don't want to jump to conclusions. So, how'd you get out?"

Andi grimaced, and her hands twitched towards her abdomen in phantom pain.

Or actual pain, come to think of it.

I should probably invest in some painkillers at some point.

She took another deep breath, and managed to force her hands back to the table.

"I don't know, to be honest. We all shifted into our wolf forms, but the fight was massively chaotic. I'm smaller than most of the other Alpha's, so from what I can remember, I managed to slip past them in the hall and make a break for the door. I think that's where most of the wounds came from."

Andi paused to take a sip of the sixth Coke she was nursing.

"Most of them chased me, I think. Billy gave us a rough idea of where you lived, and so I headed here. They turned back once we got pretty close to the apartment. Though I must admit I don't know how no one stopped us, or even seem to notice a pack of wolves charging through Chicago. And once I got to the building..."

She shrugged, her hair rippling in a crimson wave.

Not that I was paying attention, of course.

"... You were the only one with a solid steel reinforced door."

I nodded, doing my best to categorize the information she'd given me.

Something, related to the fey, had attacked the Alpha's.

The hellhounds, if that's what they were, turned around when they could have continued following her.

That meant that either whatever sent them had given the signal to return, or they were avoiding me.

Neither of those were particularly good options, because the first meant that they'd gotten what they wanted, potentially herding Andi to me, or that they didn't want to alert me, or most likely the White Council.

I sighed.

This was going to be one of those days.

"Andi?"

She looked up, a red brow already raised.

"... Mind if I finish the pizza?"

Andi blinked.

The pizza was cold before I was done.

I'd let the stove burn out during our conversation, and there wasn't really time to heat it back up. Added to my lack of a microwave, and this being Chicago during late fall, it was pretty cool by the time I started on my last slice.

Using some of the manners Ebenezer had drilled into me during my time on the farm, I made sure to wipe my mouth once I was finished.

Which had nothing to do with the attractive woman across from me.

Seriously.

Anyway, Andi was waiting in the living room, snooping around the shelving for... something.

I decided that it was in my best interest to not say anything, and act like I hadn't seen anything as I turned around to shrug on my leather duster, calling behind me.

"You ready?"

I heard her jump, and felt a little grin come to my face.

Still got it.

Anyway, back to my super awesome coat.

Despite everyone I've ever met telling me it belonged on the set of El Dorado, and only that for some reason, it was not only stylish, as far as I rolled anyway, and enchanted to the furthest extent I could manage.

The duster could shrug off low caliber bullets, and something told me that by the time this was over I'd be glad I brought it.

As I turned around to talk to Andi about our game plan, I realized several important things.

One, Andi hadn't had a chance to shower, so she was still pretty much covered in blood.

And the second thing was that while my shirt might as well have been a dress on her, she didn't have pants, and Harry, this is really not the time for that!

I cleared my throat, doing my best to avert my eyes.

"Maybe you should get a shower. I'll try to find some pants for you to wear, so we can leave."

Andi tilted her head, bright red locks falling to one side.

"Wouldn't it be better for you to go alone? I'll just end up slowing you down like I am now."

I grimaced, which I seemed to be doing a lot today.

This really couldn't be put delicately.

"To be honest, Andi, the fact that you're involved means that I really can't leave you here."

She looked even more puzzled.

I sighed, deciding that I was going to have to play my strengths here.

Brunt force trauma, mostly.

"You making it here was in all likelihood not accidental. Either whatever attacked you guys wanted me to know about it, or it got what it wanted. Whichever way you look at it, you're involved, and the fact that you're worn out means that I can't very well leave you alone."

Andi started to nod, only to freeze.

"Wait... Wanted you to know? Are you suspecting the Red Court?"

The Red Court are a type of vampire. Not quite the traditional form, though they do drink blood, but instead they were giant bat-like creatures in people suits.

They'd attacked someone I'd cared about, and I'd started a war.

I still don't regret it.

But back with Andi, I shook my head.

"The Red Court isn't known for shapeshifters, but it's not out of the question. While we know most of the other two courts powers, we don't have someone with Stoker level knowledge of the White's or of the Red Court. It's possible they turned a shaman, who managed to retain their powers. The Red's are certainly old enough, and it seems they've got a hand in every pot."

They were almost certainly hellhounds, but considering who I was going to have to confront about this, any other options were preferable.

Added to the fact that I was still a small fish in a massive pond, and that meant that until I was positive, it was in my best interest to not ignore potential plot twists later on.

There was nothing worse than preparing for a showdown with a vampire, and ending up with a sorcerer or some pissed off shaman.

That one... not so much experience with, admittedly.

Once I was positive that Andi had digested the relevant information, I nodded down the hall.

"Showers down there, to the left. Mind the eye cream on the counter. I'm still working on developing my own, and if I lose the Gatekeeper's that research is going to grind to a screeching halt."

She chuckled and moved down the hall to the shower. After I heard her turn on the shower, I moved to find something she could use for pants, only to move back towards the bathroom when I heard a feminine yelp.

Once I got up to the door I knocked.

"Andi? You okay?"

Her voice wafted under the door, reassuring me that at least she hadn't fallen and broken her spine in my shower.

"I'm alright! But is something up with the water heater?"

I blinked, nonplussed.

"Well no. There is no water heater. It wouldn't last very long."

"Ahh..."

She sounded awkward now.

"... So nothing but cold showers here, huh?"

I did the best to keep the sheepishness out of my voice.

"There's a heater, but it's not electric, and it'll take too much time to warm up. Sorry, but this one'll have to be cold."

There was a general mutter of discontent, but it sounded like she'd accept it.

But right as I started to walk away, I heard her voice again.

"Harry? You might want to change out of the bathrobe, by the way."

I looked down.

Sure enough, under my coat was my bathrobe, just like it had been for this whole endeavor.

Ah. Business as usual for Harry Dresden.


	3. Chapter 3

'Wizards, Werewolves, and an insidious plot to take over the world, or at least the greater Chicago area? Just another day in the life of Harry Dresden, Wizard P.I.'

The Dresden Files and all associated properties are owned by Jim Butcher. This is a non-profit fanfic. Please support the official release.

This story takes place between Summer Knight and Death Masks.

Beta-ed by: ZeroZalazor

In the end, Andi had been forced to settle for some of my new gym shorts, I'd been feeling very guilty about the damage to the Wal-Mart on that visit, and they ended up hanging a little past her knees.

She certainly had an interesting look going on, long red tresses, a quite attractive face, deep blue eyes... And a men's tee-shirt and gym shorts.

I could say it looked bad on her.

But I'd be lying.

Big time.

Luckily it wasn't likely we'd be seeing many people at our destination.

When we got there at least, but that was the point of this excursion.

Andi appeared to be pumping me for information now that the crippling fear of my car, the Blue Beetle, that had been incited in her had lowered to constant paranoia.

"Why, exactly, are we heading to Lake Michigan this time of year? Considering neither of us are in bodybags, we're not dressed for a swim."

Heh. I knew I liked her for a reason.

"I'm planning on calling one of our suspects. Considering who it is, I decided to do this as far from my apartment as I can manage."

She bit her lip in frustration, and stars and stones why was that so distracting!

When was the last time I'd been with a woman again?

... Oh yeah.

Two years ago.

Susan.

Well that got me out of that funk at least, in time to hear the red-heads' question. And to pay attention to the road.

Wizard I may be, but I was as squishy as any other mortal.

"And who, exactly, is that? I know that you're a wizard, Harry..."

She paused at that, giving a light giggle, to which I responded with my best disapproving gaze.

Heathen.

But she quickly sobered, and continued.

"... And secrets are your trade, but I have no idea how my friends are right now."

I winced.

Considering the carnage from Andi's description, it was likely the police had been called in, and while I cared about the Alpha's, there wasn't anything I could do at this point in the game at their house.

I had to figure out who was behind all this, and being arrested and or brought in for questioning at a crime scene, seeing as I was a known associate of Billy and his crew, wouldn't help anyone.

Myself and Andi especially, but also the taxpayers of Chicago.

... Which included us, come to think of it.

Which meant I had to answer this honestly.

"I have one major suspect, but considering I've got a pretty major connection to her, Naming her in any way would let her know I want something."

Andi nodded, letting me know at least one of my friends had listened to my explanation of names.

Everything has a Name, and that Name has power. It can be given at birth, or could even be a nickname that they held as 'them', but innately that Name had power.

The effect was even noticeable on pure vanilla mortals.

It was the reason you were more likely to react to your full name being used by a member of your family.

Andi's look of understanding slowly began to morph into apprehension.

"Um, Harry, didn't you mention that stuff like that tends to only happen with the really powerful supernatural stuff?"

... Maybe she'd listened a little too well.

Because that was true.

After all, there was a reason you didn't speak Mab's name three times in the NeverNever.

It called her.

And she was rarely happy about that sort of thing.

Luckily it wasn't her we were calling up.

Just her handmaiden.

So I sighed, my bracelet rattling on my wrist.

"She's not the highest of the high, but she's pretty close. If she is responsible there are actions we can take, but none of them are pretty. At all."

Because if it was Lea, we were up a creek without a paddle, or even a boat.

In Alaska.

During December.

With Grizzly Man.

But luckily, we had arrived at Lake Michigan.

I nodded as Andi and I got out of the Beetle's mismatched doors, and I did my best to smile.

If I was successful, I'd be stunned.

Toot-toot greeted us as we made our trek to a small bit of concrete on the shore of Lake Michigan that I used for Circles.

Toot is an Wyldfae, unaffiliated with the Winter or Summer Courts.

He's a dewdrop faerie, and as such holds a great number of similarities to Tinkerbell.

You know, the whole tiny human with butterfly wings and a soft glow?

That sums him up pretty well.

"Za Lord!"

Unfortunately, Toot is also pretty weird.

In addition to the aforementioned Tinkerbell resemblance, he also had a box cutter in a sheath that I'd given him earlier in the year.

It had killed The Summer Lady.

That had been one of those days.

"Toot! How are things going?"

The tiny pixie saluted.

"Well, Za Lord! Is there anything Za Guard can handle?"

It said a lot about how much affection pizza could buy with The Little Folk that one of them would leave a question open ended like that.

The fae, from the smallest brownie to the strongest sidhe didn't do that. It wasn't against their nature, but considering the fact that all faeries had to follow through with any promises and obligations they made, it was a big deal.

That said a lot about the trust they had in me.

Providing them iron weapons probably helped.

"Nothing much, Toot, but do you know if Winter's been making any moves?"

The faerie put his hand up to his chin, obviously trying to milk the suspense.

It wasn't very effective.

Throughout this conversation, Andi looked between me and the Leader of Za Guard in clear confusion.

Obviously she hadn't heard of my promotion to Pizza Lord.

Once it was clear to Toot that I wasn't going to bite, he folded his arms and pouted, kicking at the air sulkily.

"None, at least in this area Za Lord. The Queen That Is..."

Mab, in this case. The fae were always very careful of Naming the higher echelons.

It might not have the same magnitude of effect as a mortal naming something, but beings without free will couldn't form Circles, which meant they had pretty much no protection against other beings from the NeverNever.

"... Has been very quiet. We believe..."

Toot's voice dropped to a whisper, and I strained to hear him, having to Listen.

"... That she is still preoccupied punishing the Winter Knight."

I rocked back a bit, honestly stunned.

Hell's Bells.

It had been months since Llyod Slate, the Winter Knight, had betrayed his Court, and sided with Aurora, the then-Summer Lady, in a bid to destroy the balance between the Courts.

It hadn't gone well for anyone involved.

So, to hear that Slate was still being punished meant that Mab was definitely not a part of this.

Which was good, because that lowered the chance that Lea was responsible, and that if it was her I might have a shot at taking her out without Mab pulling a 'rocks-fall-everyone-dies' scenario.

That was also bad, because if it wasn't Lea, I was about to accuse her of subversive action, something I myself had done with her.

And I didn't think she'd find the irony funny.

I sighed, and adjusted my coat. It was starting to get pretty cool, after all.

"I would skedaddle, Toot. I'm calling up Lea."

Toot went bug-eyed. Not literally, thankfully.

"Yes, Za Lord!"

With a quick, and probably incorrect salute, Toot flew off, eager to get the hell out of dodge.

Lucky him.

Andi and I made our way to a small hunk of concrete, no more than ten feet by ten feet, with a good view of Lake Michigan.

I had no idea what the original purpose of the area had been, but as I removed a stick of chalk from my pocket and began to make a circle, I was glad it wasn't in use anymore.

As I finished with the circle itself, and began on a series of runes meant to keep out spiritual beings, Andi appeared to be recovering from the living migraine that was Toot-toot.

Literally, in fact. Fairy Lights are not something that mortals should spend too long looking at. They had a habit of giving people the crazies.

"... We're in deep shit, aren't we?"

Andi sounded sullen, and when I looked at her, I was stunned to see her head down, and a glimmer of liquid falling to the ground.

It was pretty clear now how out of our depth we were, and it seemed like Andi had given up hope of being able to help her friends, or at worst, avenge them.

Of everything out there, I had to admit, I was probably the worst at comforting crying women.

Which was why I wasn't expecting much from the words that came tumbling out.

"If it is Lea, then yeah, we're not great. But it's not guaranteed, and if it isn't her, then she'll probably have information that can help. Don't give up now. We've only just started."

To my surprise, she seemed to take the words to heart, and looked back up, with a look of determination on her face and a firm nod.

Huh. Maybe I'd picked the wrong career. I suppose if I ever gave up private investigation, there was a future as a motivational speaker for me.

Now if only I could take my own words to heart.

But, I gathered up my resolve, and finished with the circle. Then, once it was sealed with a touch of will, becoming a Circle, I started on the big bit.

Actually calling Lea.

"Leanansidhe."

I spoke softly.

"Leanansidhe of The Winter Court."

My voice rose, until reaching a crescendo.

"Leanansidhe, Godmother of Mine, I call you!"

With that, I pushed power into the circle.

Snow began blow within the confines of the concrete circle, the temperature dropping from just below comfortable to well south of freezing. A figure draped in white gowns, with luscious red-hair and feline green eyes appeared, nodding towards me.

"Godson."

Her voice was even and controlled.

That wasn't a good sign.

In the past, I had made a deal with my godmother, and when she had come around to collect, well, me, I had run as fast as my legs could carry me.

And they were darn long legs.

But during the fight with the Nightmare, I had managed to manipulate Lea into not causing me harm for a year.

That was, just narrowly, up.

My eyes followed Lea's, to see Andi looking confused and more than a little scared. I, however, averted my eyes from the... reaction that she was having from the cold.

My godmothers eyes, slit, and literally soulless, met mine.

"Are you trading this one?"

Considering the smile I heard in her voice, I didn't want to know what she had planned.

"No."

I shook my head firmly, letting her know that wasn't going to happen.

"I came to offer an apology."

Lea's eyebrows went somewhere above her hairline, and Andi made a choking sound, and when I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye she was looking at me like I had been replaced by a pod-person.

Nice to know what your friends think of you, I suppose.

"Oh? Then perhaps this shall be worth my time."

I had her attention, if nothing else.

"I apologize, Godmother, for dumping iron and depleted uranium down your cleavage."

Andi's eyes looked about ready to pop out of her skull.

Lea had a look I had never seen on her, and I braced myself, worried that had been one comment to many...

... Only for her to start laughing.

She didn't laugh often, at least when I was around, but this seemed entirely genuine. It actually took her around half a minute to calm down.

"Refreshing as always, Godson. Now, why did you really call me here?"

She wasn't giving me the death glare anymore, so striking while the iron was hot would be good.

Heh. Iron. Fey.

I'm a regular stand-up comedian.

"There were hellhounds seen in Chicago."

I managed to keep accusation out of my tone.

"They have been."

My godmothers tone was once more flat.

"They attacked my friends."

Anger was bubbling just below the surface.

"That they did."

Still calm and collected.

"Were they yours, godmother?"

There we go. Finally got the question out.

"No."

I jumped up, staff at the ready.

"I knew it! Fue..."

My brain caught up to what Lea had said, and threw on the emergency brake, and I stopped, reeling.

"Wait... They weren't yours? But no one else in Faerie makes hellhounds."

My godmother, with a smirk now, nodded.

"That is true enough. But remember, child, the fae are beings of bargains."

My mind, still unprepared, connected the dots.

"Oh stars and stones. You trade hellhounds!?"

Her smirk remained.

"Indeed, child. Did you believe I needed all of those hounds for myself?"

The gears in my head were already moving though.

Lea wouldn't trade her hellhounds to just anybody, so she had to know who had done it.

My godmother saw my expression, and shook her head.

"Even if you had something to trade, I could not tell you who those hellhounds were given to. However, as your godmother, I can guide you in the correct direction. The officer will be waiting at this..."

She held out her hand, and a slip of paper with a location I recognized flew to me.

"... address."

A glint of concern appeared in her cold eyes.

"You do, however, have time to eat. It appears you still need it. And..."

Her eyes settled on Andi.

"As compensation for your... apology, proper garments for her will be waiting in your... vehicle, if It could be called that."

With that, she turned, and vanished to the NeverNever.

The area was still freezing, though.


	4. Chapter 4

'Wizards, Werewolves, and an insidious plot to take over the world, or at least the greater Chicago area? Just another day in the life of Harry Dresden, Wizard P.I.'

The Dresden Files and all associated properties are owned by Jim Butcher. This is a non-profit fanfic. Please support the official release.

This story takes place between Summer Knight and Death Masks.

Beta-ed by: ZeroZalazor

As much as it hurt, we didn't stop at Burger King on the way there.

It said a lot about the company I kept that this fact was not overlooked.

"I would have thought you, of all people, would take this opportunity to have some fast food."

Andi's eyebrow was raised semi-mockingly at me, a crimson line over a now much more tastefully dressed woman.

The female werewolf was now clad in a long-sleeved tee-shirt, with a band logo I didn't recognize, and a pair of blue jeans that were a lot more tasteful than the style seemed to be nowadays.

And didn't that statement make me feel old.

But the clothes, unsurprisingly, looked great on her, and, more suspiciously, and thankfully, covered all her scars.

Her statement, mocking though it may have been, was not unwarranted. Lea had told us we had time to stop and eat.

But I hadn't lived this long by believing everything a faerie told me.

"She did say we could stop. But the fact she mentioned it at all is a red flag."

From Andi's expression, it was clear that Fey Lesson's 101 hadn't sunk in like Naming For Dummy's had.

... Yes, those were the names of the lectures that I had given the Alpha's. They were the names on the brochures in my office that I paraphrased from, but that was beside the point.

"The fae can't outright lie, but that doesn't mean they have to tell the truth. Lea saying we have enough time to eat before we get there is correct, particularly in the sense that the building in question will still be there. She was so vague that it's not really possible to determine what she meant, so I'm not going to take any chances."

Andi nodded, taking in my glorious teaching, before a slight smirk developed on her face.

Not that I was watching her face.

"Mad-Eye Moody!"

She sang in a sing-song tone, her voice full of mischief.

This sort of heresy could only be combated by sternness, so I turned the Gandalf up to twelve, and intoned with utter severity.

"I... am not paranoid."

Andi gave a dainty snort. I glared at her, before once more focusing on evening Chicago traffic.

"Sure you aren't. The wards that would have zapped me into Kentucky Fried Wolf withstanding, huh?"

That brought an end to the short bantering session we had been developing into. Because that reminded me of a point I had completely forgotten about, due to the woman bleeding out on my doorway

"How did you get by my wards?"

She flushed, looking awkward now.

"While I didn't have any place in mind when I left the apartment, just to get out of there, I must have instinctively gone for the crystal you gave Billy to feed Mister when you were out of town."

I blinked, even more confused now.

"But... you were a wolf. There was no way for you to carry the crystal. It's not massive, but lupine animals don't have palms to hold anything in."

She flushed an even deeper red.

"Iswalloweditalright?"

Her voice was just above a mumble, but I did understand it, and all of a sudden I felt a little green around the gills.

"Ah..."

This topic was done now, thank you.

"... On to other things now, please."

There was an awkward silence, made even more awkward by the fact we had a nice little tit-and-tat starting that had distracted us until I stuck my size eighteen boot right in my dopey mouth.

The silence continued, until my red-haired companion gave a little giggle and a slight smile.

"... You have an actual faerie godmother."

I had to smile, just a little, at that.

"Yeah, I do. No magic pumpkins from her though, unfortunately."

Andi smiled, looking down, and then seemed to realize something.

"Uh, Harry? If we're suspicious of your godmother, why is it okay to wear the clothes she gave you?"

My eyes widened briefly.

"Because she did that in 'exchange' for my apology. Lea, manipulative though she may be, follows through with her promises... And you really did need proper clothing."

I must be hanging around the sidhe too much.

All of what I had just said was definitely true, but left out the fact that, one, I was pretty much broke at the moment, and two, I neglected to mention the feeling in my gut that something was up with Lea, much more than her leaving out information.

And whatever it was, there wasn't anything good about it.

Added was the fact that she hadn't brought up the fight between the Courts, that had led me to kill Aurora, worried me, because that had without a doubt drawn attention on me, the Alpha's, and just Chicago as a whole.

In addition to the entire Court of vampires out for my blood.

But, before Andi had the chance to question me further, I realized we were almost at our destination.

And I could see the police cars from here.

Joy.

The apartment building that we were now at was in Lincoln Square, a relatively well-to-do neighborhood, though a little commercialized for my tastes. It was also pretty close to Graceland Cemetery, which I hope isn't ominous foreshadowing.

After all, my graves' in Graceland.

And that, like most everything nasty these past few years, to the Red Court.

They'd even given it a nice little inscription.

HE DIED DOING THE RIGHT THING, is what Bianca had written on it, though there was a heaping of sarcasm, considering the author.

Heh.

Considering the line I seem to be treading, that was the best-case scenario.

As we pulled up at what was undoubtedly a crime scene, one cop, a woman with a striking resemblance to Buffy, stared at my car with a mixture of relief and confusion.

It was Karrin Murphy, Lieutenant of the Chicago Police Department, and member of the Special Investigations Department. She called me in on cases that even her boys had issues with, which had, unfortunately for my wallet, become more uncommon.

As she approached my car, Andi and I getting out of the car to meet her, I did my best to put my private investigation skills to the test.

The first thing I noticed, rather worryingly, was that most, if not all, of the cops were milling nervously outside the building. And considering the lack of body-bags, or even blood, the sidewalk wasn't where... Whatever was going on happened.

And the second, as I followed the occasional unnerved glances of the police officers, was that one of the third floor windows had a hole about as wide as a human, and much shorter.

Then, fluttering faintly in the breeze, I saw tufts of fur in the glass.

Oh.

Hell's Bells.

That was pretty much par for course at this point, and if I was a betting man, and most of my friends would probably say I was, based off the stunts I tend to pull, I would put all the money I had saved up for rent on that being hellhound hair.

It said quite a lot about how far down the rabbit hole Murph had come since we had met, that she barely gave Andi a second glance as she made her way over to the car.

She was relieved, which caused my danger assessment to go up by about twenty points, and a little puzzled.

"Dresden..."

Considering how much of a badass I knew Murphy was, the fact she had the voice, but not the tone, of a kindergarten teacher was always a bit funny.

"... I don't know how you knew where we were, considering you didn't pick up your phone, and considering the lack of an answering machine I didn't bother to leave a message, but I'm glad all the same."

I sighed, rubbing the back of my head.

"I had some... assistance from the other side of the street."

She stiffened at that.

Good thing too. If my exploits didn't cause some healthy paranoia in everyone I knew even vaguely well, nothing would.

Which was why I worried about Michael sometimes.

"... We're in some deep shit, aren't we?"

God bless her, it wasn't even a real question anymore.

My head went up and down letting her know pretty much everything she needed. And then, she got down to business.

"So, what do you know?"

I shrugged, my duster squeaking slightly.

"Know? That there was an incident here. I can guess at the fact that wolves had something to do with it, but other than that I'm in the dark."

She sighed, closing her eyes.

"We don't know much more at the moment."

My eyebrow went up at that.

"Really? Something blocking the door?"

Murphy shook her head, blond strands flowing.

"... They're worried it's connected to the incident with the FBI."

Oh. I hadn't even considered that.

This was just old fashioned, logical, fear. The last time the police force had seen something like this, a mystic juggernaut had broken out of their holding cells, and killed a damn good cop.

And now, they were worried that it still wasn't over.

"... Are they connecting this to the 'serial killing' case?"

That wasn't what actually happened, but it was the explanation that most people, her superiors included, would accept.

She frowned, looking almost adorable, and on another person I would call it pouting.

"Not yet, but that's certainly on the table."

The politicians and higher ups in the police department will be down my throat if that happened, and they weren't happy with me on the best of days, considering most of humanity had rejected the supernatural, and considered me a crook.

For good reason. The things that went bump in the night were apathetic at best, and nasty at worst.

Heck, most of the supernatural things with any sort of influence preferred vanilla mortals to be completely unaware of their existence.

Much easier to cull the herd when they don't know you're there.

Murph's gaze had drifted over to Andi, who I realized I had almost forgotten about. She seemed bemused, almost.

"Dresden, why is one of the pups here?"

That was down right adorable. Murphy had a pet name for the Alpha's. They'd never hear the end of it from me.

Oh yeah. Best to ask.

"Murph, has there been any reports of wolf sightings here or elsewhere, specifically near the college?"

Her blond brows furrowed as she went, I'd assume, through her mental list of calls into the police. If anyone had called in about what had happened to the Alpha's, it would have been forwarded to Special Investigations.

After all, their purpose wasn't so much to solve cases no one else could, though under Karrin's guidance they had been doing a good job of that, it was a place to shunt off anything most regular people refused to accept. And, well, to 'explain' what happened, usually by bending the truth liberally.

After a few moments, though, Murphy shook her head.

"Nope. Not a thing."

My eyebrows rose.

"Not anything from the university area at all? No breaking up a wild party or anything?"

She seemed confused by my line of questioning, once again giving a negative.

Which was bad.

Because that meant that someone, or something, had covered up a brutal battle near a college campus, and even had enough juice to cause people to overlook a small pack of hellhounds, and Andi, running across Chicago.

Murphy's eyes narrowed as I was drifting off, and I could see the look when she, quite quickly, realized the connection between my questions and Andi.

Who, herself, seemed to be getting a decent view of the picture of what we knew. And judging by her grimace, she knew things were getting more complicated.

"Something happened with the Alpha's, didn't it?

Murph's voice was quiet, subdued now.

"Yeah. I figured the police would be on the scene, so I avoided it , but seeing as there is not much you can tell me here yet, we'll be heading there."

The blond detectives eyebrows raised up.

"No leads from the Private Investigator?"

Despite the mocking in her tone, I got the message.

She was wondering if I had any ideas I wasn't sharing, or couldn't share.

I gave a brief shake of my head, communicating as best I could that I didn't have much for her.

But I could do something.

"You might want to get your boys in there pretty soon. Stuff like this has a tendency to vanish if it sits too long."

She snorted, and waved her hands in a 'whatever' motion, but I saw her slight nod.

Message received.

Hopefully she got the message about the spiritual nature of the threat.

Although that did bring out the question of how they got in, both at the Alpha's and here, but it wasn't out of the question for one of the hellhounds to pull my earlier 'wounded gazelle' card, and pretend to be an injured dog.

The second someone says something that would open the threshold, out come the claws.

Poor folks didn't even have a chance to react.

That brought up the 'why', but considering all the mysteries already laid out, that was lower on the list than 'who', and 'where next'.

And heck 'Is there a pattern' was a pretty good one too.


End file.
